Former FGCU starter Eric McKnight's transfer to Tennessee is on hold, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel, and may be in jeopardy altogether.

The 6-9 center, whom Tennessee had hoped to have enrolled for the start of the second half of summer classes last week as a graduate transfer, has yet to receive waivers from the NCAA and SEC.

Tennessee still believes McKnight will be able to enroll for the start of fall classes in August, the News Sentinel reported.

An NCAA waiver is needed because of a bylaw prohibiting graduate transfers who already have played for two four-year schools from using their final year of eligibility at a third. McKnight played at Iowa State as a freshman before spending the next three seasons at FGCU, where he graduated this spring.

The SEC also must approve McKnight's transfer as a graduate student. The league's requirements make mention of being in good standing with former programs.

McKnight was suspended for the first 12 games of the 2013-2014 season and dismissed from the program after the season ended for what FGCU coach Joe Dooley said was another rules violation, which would have been at least his third at FGCU.

When initially announcing his departure from the team in April, FGCU said that McKnight was forgoing his final season of eligibility to pursue a professional career.

In May, McKnight signed with Tennessee and new coach Donnie Tyndall, who has had to fill a number of scholarship vacancies with the program.

"I sat down and talked with my family," McKnight told the News Sentinel at the time. "It was nothing personal to coach Dooley or anything. I decided it would be better for me to play another year (in college)."

Because he is not enrolled in school, McKnight, a starter the majority of his two seasons on the court at FGCU, has not been able to participate in team workouts this summer with the Vols.

"Feel like the devil keep shuting [sic] doors for me but there gonna be one soon that he can't shut," McKnight wrote on his Twitter account on June 27.

Tyndall said he wasn't aware that McKnight had been dismissed by FGCU at the time he verbally committed to Tennessee in May.

"I talked to two assistants on that staff that said nothing but good things about him," Tyndall told the News Sentinel.

Of his 12-game suspension to open the 2013-14 season, McKnight told the paper, "I learned a lot from that experience. I believe that everybody deserves a second chance. If you put someone around the right people and the right system, anything is possible."

ODD SCHEDULING

For about a day, FGCU looked like it had another non-conference game on its schedule.

But a day after releasing a schedule that included a Jan. 3 home game with FGCU, the University of Hawaii on Wednesday removed FGCU from its schedule.